The present invention relates generally to a doorknob, and more particularly to a doorknob cover which is provided with a means to attract magnetically or a means to be attracted magnetically, so as to enable the door to be held at an open position.
As shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 5, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,701,635 discloses a doorknob cover 10 which is made of an elastic material, such as polyurethane, rubber, etc. The doorknob cover 10 is provided in the interior with a receive chamber 11. The receive chamber 11 is provided with a circular opening 12 through which the doorknob xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x9d is inserted to press against an interior surface 13 of the receive chamber 11, thereby enabling the doorknob cover 10 to fitting completely over the doorknob xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x9d. When the door xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d is forcibly opened to hit a wall xe2x80x9cWxe2x80x9d, the doorknob cover 10 is impacted to deform such that the reaction force is absorbed by a thickness xe2x80x9cTxe2x80x9d which is measured from the outermost surface of the doorknob cover 10 to the interior surface 13, as illustrated in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. In light of the protective effect of the doorknob cover 10, the doorknob xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x9d is provided with protection against damage in the event that the door xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d is slammed against the wall xe2x80x9cWxe2x80x9d.
The prior art doorknob cover 10 described above is defective in design in that the doorknob cover 10 is bound to bounce back upon hitting the wall xe2x80x9cWxe2x80x9d, as illustrated in FIG. 4. As a result, the door xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d may accidentally hit a tray held in one hand of a person opening the door xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d. Such an incident may result in a messy situation. In order to prevent the incident from taking place, the person may use one of his or her hips to stop the door xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d from springing back. In addition, the door xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d may be playfully slammed against the wall xe2x80x9cWxe2x80x9d by the children, who are vulnerable to being hit on the face by the door xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d in the event that the doorknob cover 10 springs back fast upon hitting the wall xe2x80x9cWxe2x80x9d. In addition, the prior art doorknob cover 10 is by no means a handy device if it is used to fit with a doorknob xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x2xe2x80x9d which is provided with a push-button lock bolt xe2x80x9chxe2x80x9d, as shown in FIG. 5. In view of the fact that the push-button lock bolt xe2x80x9chxe2x80x9d is completely obstructed by the xe2x80x9cT2xe2x80x9d portion of the doorknob cover 10. The push-button lock bolt xe2x80x9chxe2x80x9d can not be easily pushed to keep the doorknob Hxe2x80x2 in the on-lock state. It might be even necessary that the doorknob cover 10 is entirely removed from the doorknob Hxe2x80x2 so as to keep the doorknob Hxe2x80x2 in the off-lock state. Moreover, the prior art doorknob cover 10 may bring about an inconvenience at the time when the door xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d is intentionally kept open to facilitate the moving of an object into or out of a room or house. The door that is kept open may be closed by the force of wind or other element. A wedge-shaped device is often used to arrest the door in such a way that the wedge-shaped device is placed between the bottom rail of the door and the floor surface.
It is the primary objective of the present invention to provide a doorknob cover capable of being arrested by a wall toward which the door is swiveled, thereby enabling the door to be kept open without the use of a doorstop device. The doorknob cover of the present invention is adapted to a push-button doorknob without obstructing the push-button lock bolt of the push-button doorknob.
In keeping with the principle of the present invention, the foregoing objective of the present invention is attained by a doorknob cover which is provided at an outer end with a magnet or iron. A wall is provided with an iron or magnet corresponding in location to the doorknob. As the door is swiveled toward the wall, the doorknob cover is arrested by the wall in such a way that the magnet of the doorknob cover attracts the iron of the wall, or vice versa.
The features and the advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood upon a thoughtful deliberation of the following detailed description of four preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.